The Guy Who Became My Grumpy Boss (Curvy Girl Crew #7)

Chapter 27

-Jessica-

There wasn’t much a table full of pies couldn’t fix.

Unfortunately, my current problem might be one of the few that could resist the pie solution.

When Ashley had said she would take care of it, she hadn’t been kidding. She’d arrived, along with Brooke, Teresa, and Nanette—who had just flown in from her husband’s movie set in Europe—and the aforementioned pastries, at exactly nine o’clock in the morning. My apartment was only a partial disaster, but no one seemed to notice.

Teresa had insisted on making whipped cream from scratch, which had taken much longer than it should have, but had been extremely entertaining, and now the five of us were gathered on my couch and chairs eating.

So far no one had asked me why I’d called a code red, but I knew it was only a matter of time before someone did.

Instead of waiting, I swallowed my bite of chocolate-cookie-cheesecake-something pie and cleared my throat.

Everyone stopped eating and looked at me.

“You’re probably wondering why I’ve summoned you here today.”

Brooke, bless her heart, snorted.

I sighed. In order for them to understand my dilemma, I needed to start at the beginning. “None of you know this, but I was married once.”

My announcement was met by surprised blinks and raised eyebrows.

I continued. “When all of my high school friends dated, I did too. They all claimed to have met the loves of their lives, so I thought I had too. They all got married the summer after we graduated, so I did too.”

The memories from this time of my life weren’t bad, they were just tainted.

“At first, we all hung out. Had parties. Then the others started having kids and staying home. My husband—” I swallowed. There was a reason I’d called Danger Zone, “Danger Zone,” for so long. “His name was Peter, and I had decided we wanted to wait to have kids, so this time we didn’t jump on the bandwagon.”

More blinks.

“Your ex-husband’s name is Peter?” Nanette asked.

I winced. “Yes.”

“Go on.”

“We weren’t unhappy, but Peter—Peter the First—wasn’t exactly ambitious. He worked a labor job, which was fine, but when I got a promotion at the bank and was almost making more than him, he became angry.”

Ashley’s eyes narrowed. She’d been through some partner trauma before too.

I held up my hand. “Nothing physical. He didn’t even attack me emotionally. He just disconnected.”

Even though I’d thought about this moment a thousand times, it took me a minute to put words to it. “Like so many young girls, I believed that marriage should be for life, so I did what I thought I should and turned down the next promotion. And the one after that.” Now that I’d started, the words tumbled out. “I’d applied to go to college and got accepted. I asked him if he thought I should go to school, and he said he was the man of the house and could take care of me.”

A few mutters followed that statement, but no one interrupted.

I swallowed and took a breath. “Looking back, he never asked me to do any of this, but I did it anyway. I made myself small so he could seem tall. I put myself in a pretty box so he would feel like he was contributing and doing the majority of the work in our relationship.”

Memories threatened to swallow me, and I took a second to breathe.

“When did you finally divorce?” Ashley gently asked.

I stuttered as I inhaled. “All three of my friends had had babies by then, and I finally asked Peter if he was ready to try. We’d been married almost five years, and that’s how long we’d agreed to wait.” Tears formed in my eyes. “That’s when he told me that one of my friend’s babies was his and that he’d been cheating on me.” I forced the words out, even though they hurt. “Ever since I’d come home making more money than him.”

Silence reigned as I tried to gather myself.

I didn’t often think of that day and rarely went over our conversation in my head. Peter had asked for a divorce, and I’d given it to him.

Like Marissa, I’d spent years of my life trying to be the woman that would make my man happy, but in the end, nothing I could have done would have been enough. It turned out that Peter and Molly had been sleeping together on and off since our sophomore year.

Ashley took my empty plate and moved to the table to refill it.

Teresa, who had been quiet so far, spoke. “What does this have to do with Danger Zone?”

“It’s complicated,” I said.

Everyone waited.

It took a good ten minutes to explain what had been going on with Marissa and the conversation I’d accidentally stumbled upon in the hotel.

“She sounds crazy,” Ashley said.

“I kind of feel sorry for her,” I said.

The others glared at me, and I held up my hand. “I was her. I also tried to control my weight for the man I loved. I remained stagnant for him, instead of progressing. Marissa wanted to be a park ranger. I wanted to be a hotel concierge. I even had plans for opening my own place, but I put them all on hold for Peter, who did nothing but cheat on me.”

Each sentence I uttered lightened the load in my mind. “While Danger Zone didn’t cheat on Marissa, what he did was worse—at least in her mind. He neglected her. He led her on. He toyed with her.”

Brooke huffed. “I refuse to feel sorry for that rascal of a woman.”

I sniffed. “I’m not going to be her best friend or anything; she’s been a deplorable human being to me, but I understand where she’s coming from.”

Nanette held up a finger. “So Peter—Danger Zone—did nothing wrong. Correct?”

“Correct.”

“So why are you hiding from him?”

Ashley returned with a piece of coconut cream for me and settled onto the couch.

My eyes moved from one friend to the next. “Because, in the space of a week, I’ve ditched you guys for him twice. I stopped going to my coffee place and checking in with my friends there. I agreed to have sushi one night, and I don’t really like it. I was changing for Danger Zone, and I hadn’t even realized it. When I did realize it, I sort of freaked out. Everything from Peter the First came crashing back down on me, and I couldn’t handle it.”

Each woman in the room studied me as I stuffed a bite of coconut cream goodness into my pie hole.

“Is there more?” Brooke asked.

I could feel their eyes searching for answers, and while I didn’t want to admit the next part, I needed to. “With all of you finding men and getting married, I vowed not to follow along with the crowd. I was afraid that I would start to date someone just so I wouldn’t be left behind.” I paused. “It took me years to find myself after Peter the First, and if I’m being truthful, it wasn’t until I met you girls that I really healed.”

Brooke seemed to think I needed a minute and commented, “No one is leaving you behind, darlin’.”

I laughed, but it mixed messily with a sob. “You aren’t?” I waved the hand that held my fork. “You guys do date nights when you’re in town. You’re always bringing the boys to our storage units, and they want to get even more involved.” I hated hearing myself say all of this, but it needed to come out. “The reason I haven’t decided what to do about the Curvy Girl Crew is because I’m afraid of losing you girls. Every option we have is pulling us apart.”

The tears that I had been valiantly holding back now poured down my cheeks.

Ashley muttered a curse, put her plate down, took mine, and handed it to Nanette, then pulled me into a hug.

Peter—Danger Zone—had hugged me, and it had been glorious, but Ashley and the others made me feel safe in a different way. It was as if I had family around me. Sisters. Best friends.

Of course the hug made me cry harder and then everyone was there, and we were all crying.

Just then, the doorbell rang.

“About time,” Brooke muttered as she disentangled herself and stood.

“For what?” I asked, still sniffing.

A moment later, I heard my door open and two familiar voices.

“Where is she?”

“Logan sent pie.”

Then Victoria and Rachel were standing in front of me with tears pouring down their cheeks.

“Why are you crying?” I asked as I wiped my eyes.

“We were listening.” Victoria held up her phone.

I glared at Ashley, who shrugged and held up her hands in surrender. “Their flight got delayed due to a storm.”

Then we were all hugging again and laughing, and Victoria almost dropped her pie, and we laughed some more.

I looked at Ashley. “How did you get them here so fast?”

She jerked her thumb at Brooke. “Her fiancé has a private jet and a bored pilot.”

“I’m never flying with the peasants again.” Victoria fluffed her blond curls.

Ashley grinned. “We figured we could all be here for your week off. Open some storage units. Help Brooke with her wedding. Get some baby clothes for Nanette.”

There was a pregnant pause while people processed that bit of information. Everyone’s eyes turned to our musical friend, who nodded sheepishly, and then the shrieking commenced.

It took me a moment longer than the others, but once I caught up to what Ashley had said, I joined in.

Nanette managed a blush—no easy task with her dark skin—and patted her stomach. “I’m just over three months along, which is why I came back early. David stayed behind.” She looked at me self-consciously. “I was hoping I could crash in your guest room for a few weeks.”

“Of course!” I jumped up and hugged her, and for the first time in a long time, I felt like myself, surrounded by my friends, whom I loved.

Then my phone buzzed. It was on the table, and everyone looked at it.

Unfortunately, it was face up, and Peter’s name showed as the person sending a message.

“You should look at that.” Teresa pointed.

I didn’t move.

“It might be important.” Rachel snatched the device up and handed it to me. “Plus, you’ve got six other women here to help you with it.”

She had me there. My thumb trembled as I swiped it to life.

Peter: I apologize for not being a good co-host yesterday. I’d like to make it up to you. Are you busy Wednesday night? If you’re available, would you like to go to dinner and a movie?

The others had gathered around. When we finished reading, they looked at me with wide eyes.

I put my phone down. “I’m busy.”

“With what?” Ashley demanded.

“You guys.”

“Nope.” Ashley retrieved my phone and held it out. “We’re all busy Wednesday night.”

I glared.

She grinned.

“I have to muck out the stalls on Wednesday night,” Brooke announced.

“At your fiancé’s barn where he pays people to do that?” I shot her an incredulous look.

“Yup.”

Nanette raised her hand and put the back of it to her head. “I feel morning sickness coming on.”

“At night?” I asked.

She fluttered her eyes and sank back in the chair.

Other excuses began to tumble out of my friends.

“I have an estate to look at.”

“Logan asked me to go visit two restaurants.”

“I’ve got tuba lessons to teach.”

I rolled my eyes.

Brooke grabbed my hand. “Darlin’, you like this fella, and it’s not just because we’re all involved with someone. You’re stubborn enough not to go with the flow again.” She tapped the side of my phone. “This might be the real thing. Don’t let it slip through your fingers.”

The others were still making up excuses about being busy.

Was Brooke right? Had this wonderful thing between Peter and me evolved naturally?

I’d known him for a year and had kept my distance because he was my boss.

I thought about it for a minute. At first, I’d simply used him as a fantasy that was too good to be true. He was everything I wanted in a guy, but having a relationship with him was off the table because I worked for him, so I had plenty of what-if daydreams and that was that.

Then I’d started noticing things about him. He seemed to be at ease with people, until he wasn’t. It had taken me a while to figure out that he crumbled faster the more he’d had to socialize in a day or when something or someone caught him off guard.

The fact that he preferred to have visual aids in reports so he could look at something besides the speaker had been an accidental discovery that I’d tested over the course of a month. I doubted he’d even noticed me using more slides, but it had made our meetings better, and I’d subtly spread the word that he was a visual learner so others would do the same.

I’d adjusted my schedule whenever I’d needed to and had done my best to make sure Danger Zone was less grumpy.

If I kept looking through that lens, then maybe I had changed for him.

However, I needed to look at things from his point of view.

Until recently, he’d shown his appreciation for me by always being respectful and, in many ways, conscientious about what was going on in my day. He’d had the tire fixed on my car. He’d brought coffee in for me more than once. I knew he’d fought for me to be left out of demanding assignments so I wouldn’t get overwhelmed and work twelve hours a day.

In the last week, he’d included me even when I knew he was mentally exhausted, he’d apologized to me after he’d been short, and he’d protected me.

These are all new things he’d done for me.

Relationships were two-way endeavors, and if I kept an open mind, instead of delving into my past hurts, then I’d realize that we’d both changed for each other.

Going out with him wasn’t condemning me to anything except an evening with a guy I liked.

I took a deep breath, picked up my phone, and decided to give me and Danger Zone a chance to talk it out.

Jessica: I might be available. What’s your offer?